Hitman HD TrilogyReview

We don’t know where the Hitman series sits on the list of famous Danish exports. Somewhere beneath Vikings, LEGO and pork products, probably. Less popular than Carlsberg but cooler than Lars Ulrich? That’s just a guess.

Either way the Hitman series, which has moved more than eight million units around the world at last count, certainly has plenty of fans. Hardcore ones, too. The kind that relish tough, intelligent gameplay. To sate said fans, and perhaps muster up a few more, Square Enix and Hitman dev IO Interactive have seen fit to stitch together Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money in one convenient package. The PC-only original is absent from the bundle but it’s worth remembering the best parts of it were actually re-imagined for consoles in Contracts.

HD compilations of last generation’s biggest franchises certainly aren’t uncommon these days, but the Hitman series is no less worthy of the same treatment. No-one will mistake these games as anything but products of a previous era – even Blood Money, which straddled the previous and current generations, is almost seven years old – but the end result is a compendium of confident stealth classics that hold up better than one might imagine.

Absolution massaged the Hitman formula somewhat by dividing levels into discrete stages and including sections that didn’t feature a target to kill. The nature of Absolution’s story mode, with 47 on the run, also meant he didn’t have the luxury of selecting his weapons and gear before each mission. That’s not the case here in these titles. The case here, in Silent Assassin, Contracts and Blood Money, is very simple. Listen to your briefing, choose your gear, enter a level, kill your target or targets, and leave. With few exceptions, this is how it unfolds across all three games. This is Hitman at its most pure. Each of the 40 levels across the three games is a self-contained ecosystem. Think of it like 40 different aquariums where you’re always the shark.

If you’re familiar with the Hitman series you’re probably already recalling how you worked you way through them. If you’re not, a world of possibilities await. How do you want to kill a Yakuza boss: fugu poisoning or lead poisoning? What’s the best way to murder a morbidly-obese Scottish crime boss relaxing at a Romanian slaughterhouse: a surprise attack through the skylight or a gun smuggled into his room inside a roast chicken? What’s the ideal method to snuff out a playboy douchebag at his father’s mansion: a shot into his glass-bottomed Jacuzzi and a horrible fall, or… something else that isn’t half as funny?

You need to think about this stuff because there’s no point playing through these games and turning every encounter into a shootout. Absolution benefited from a variety of improvements that meant when a situation descended into a firefight you could still play the game like a robust third-person shooter. The original Hitman titles featured in this collection were never designed to be played like that, so be prepared to be underwhelmed if you plan on blasting your way through. They’re awkward games to play impatiently. The focus here is pure stealth, whether you’re gliding around in the shadows undetected or hiding in plain sight, blending in amongst your enemies. Plan, then move. Walk, don’t run. Save, then experiment. Stalk, then pounce. Trial and error; that’s what Hitman has always been about. It’s not just a stealth game, it’s a puzzle game. The perfect hit is always there, somewhere. You just need to put all the pieces together for it.

Those who’ve gorged themselves on the teat of largely shallow, modern run ’n gun shooters may find the slow pace of the games in the Hitman HD Trilogy nightmarish. There’s no recharging health. There are no corridors full of bodies to pile up. In fact, played correctly there’ll just be a stage full of survivors who never even knew you were there. For gamers with at least a vague recollection of when Germany was two countries (and Czechoslovakia was one) it’s like a welcome window into the past. The days before on-disc DLC and dubstep came and dropped a deuce in everyone’s corn flakes.

Hitman’s disguise system, a fundamental part of proceedings since the very beginning, shouldn’t require much explanation. However, if you’re a bit rusty (or playing these games for the first time) it may take some time to work out the wrinkles in the tension meter. It’s slightly different from Absolution’s Blend mechanic in that you don’t have to actively push a button to slip past enemies, but you do need to be very careful near them. Lingering too long near a guard or bursting into a jog at the wrong moment can render a disguise useless instantly. It’s at its worst and most binary in Silent Assassin. One second you’re covered face to foot in a firefighter’s uniform, the next you’re being cut down by gunfire for no apparent reason. How the guards can tell one identically-dressed fireman from another, each with full facemasks, is anyone’s guess. You’ll never know; you just have to cop it. It can get frustrating, particularly on the harder difficulty settings with fewer mid-level saves, but you learn to adjust.

It does improve; in Blood Money suspicious guards will regularly challenge you first before opening fire, allowing you the chance to disarm them and defuse a poor situation. It’s interesting to see how far the core mechanics of the series progressed between 2002 and 2006, and playing all three titles in quick succession will highlight the evolution. It’s a shame some of the rough edges of Silent Assassin and Contracts’ gameplay couldn’t be smoothed out along with the graphics, but everything is as it was when they were first released, for better or for worse.

That said, the HD Turtle Wax actually doesn’t flatter the Hitman series as much as it does, say, platformers like the Ratchet & Clank series, or the Sly games. Colourful, heavily-stylised games like the latter don’t date as rapidly and have a habit of looking surprising sharp and sexy after a high-definition refresh. The visuals here in the Hitman HD Trilogy are certainly crisp, but they remain quite plain. It’s understandable of course, considering Hitman 2 in particular is over a decade old, but it’s worth mentioning. These are old games; don’t expect a miracle.

Hitman HD Trilogy

Hitman HD Trilogy is a deadly combination of games including Hitman Contracts, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman Blood Money.

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The Verdict

Three games, 40 levels and more than 75 hits? That's a lot of content by any measure. You also get the Hitman: Sniper Challenge with this.

If you’re a long-time Hitman fan who’s never been able to part with your copies of Silent Assassin and Contracts but hasn’t been inclined to squint through the low-res murkiness to replay them, grab this and take a trip back in time. If your only experience of Blood Money was on PS2, grab this; this is what 360 owners got and this is how Blood Money was meant to look. If you missed them back in the day, grab this now and discover how gratifying stealing another man’s clothes and, er, whacking his boss can be.

They’re definitely showing their age, but beneath the elderly visuals and slightly crusty controls lay the roots of a creative and rewarding series of games that probably don’t quite get the credit they deserve.